


It's A Cunning Illusion

by subtropicalStenella



Series: 5 for 500 [8]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Chatlogs, M/M, Near Death Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 06:39:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12163515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/subtropicalStenella/pseuds/subtropicalStenella
Summary: 5 for 500 Prompt For PropheticFire: The Finally Realize It's Not "I Love You, Man" it's "I'm IN LOVE With You, Man"





	It's A Cunning Illusion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [propheticfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/propheticfire/gifts).



Just because he could delegate now didn't mean he didn't get splitting headaches. He was still dealing with something like fifty assholes, but now  _ those  _ assholes were dealing with fifty assholes of their own and relaying  _ him _ all the collective bullshit shenanigans of their respective fuckfaced assholes.  

 

Less, now that they’ve lost the  _ Forthright. _

 

He takes his cover off, runs his hand through his hair, puts it back, and tries to fall back into the rhythmic chaos of the dogfight above and below Quell’s atmosphere, the beautiful pale indigo-blue expanse and its lush, fluffy white cloud cover riddled with thick, tarry smoke, burning fuel and multicolored blasterfire. 

 

**FC-6345: All surviving flights from VC-** **_Forthright_ ** **converge on** **_VC-Relentless, VC-Intrepid._ **

 

Confirmations sound out all around the command room, relayed from his teams. Fully two thirds of  _ Forthright _ 's flights answer, most of them only down one or two birds. The last third is either eerily, tragically quiet or frantically responding to their handlers. It's going as smoothly as it can,considering he's watching the  _ Forthright  _ slowly fall out of the sky. 

The aptly named Separatist  _ Vultures  _ show up, right on schedule to fuck up his day, swarming out from behind the lee side of the dying  _ Forthright _ and ripping through the fleeing Republic fighters in a storm of flashing red. Z-95s tumble out of the air by the handful. A few of them limp along after taking hits, others spiralling down to the planet’s surface. One intact fighter peels off out of formation, following a spinner down, and Aytee, Avril flight's handler, loses his shit. 

 

“ _ Avril 2, resume course to VC-Relentless! Avril 2!” _

 

He turns, watches Aytee hammer data into his screen. 

 

“ _ Avril 2, disengage and resume course to VC-Relentless! Avril 2--”  _ Aytee breaks off, head in his hands. “ _ Dammit _ , Gunner, he went down in a hotzone, he--”

 

Aytee throws his headset off. “I can't listen to this.”  

He's not sure how it happens, but he's holding onto Aytee’s shoulder and saying “Patch me into Avril.” 

 

**_***Avril  0, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 Inoperable.***_ **

 

_ Shit.  _ Nix, Venn, Rads, Dawn, Rylee down. Avril Five was Mids, because those fucking idiots insisted on being two and five so their wing numbers would mirror like their batch designations. And Gunner's gone off the rails, shouting Aytee down. 

 

CP-9041:  _ \--ot gonna fucking leave him, Aytee!  _

CP-9041: Alright?

CP-9041: Fuck you. 

CP-9041: _ Fuck you!  _

**FC-6345: His fucking com is down Gunner**

**FC-6345: Get your ass up here before we lose** **_Relentless_ ** **too**

CP-9041:  _ Fuck you too!  _

CP-9041: He took the hit in the nose

CP-9041: Cockpit was  _ fucking sealed and I'm going after him! _

 

“Try to raise Avril 5 on secondary,” he says. If the cockpit wasn't breached there's a chance, a slim one, that maybe Mids is still kicking. Maybe he'd lost main system coms but kept his secondary helmet system up. Maybe--

Aytee shakes his head, grimacing. “Tried it. He's nonresponsive, sir. I--”

 

CP-9041:  _ I got him! _

**FC-6345: How the fuck?**

**FC-6345: Did he eject under atmo?**

**FC-6345:** **_Answer me!_ **

 

Maybe he shouldn't get this worked up over one pilot, two pilots even but, honestly? Fuck it. He's lost enough already and it was only going to get worse, because

“Another  _ Vulture _ flight just dropped out of hyperspace from Sector 7, headed right for  _ Relentless,  _ sir!”

_ Shit.  _

 

**FC-6345: Stay focused. Keep** **_Forthright’s_ ** **Vultures busy and** **_off our turrets._ **

CP-9041: I--

CP-9041: No 

CP-9041: No I got his Zee

CP-9041: He didn't--

CP-9041: He--

**FC-6345: Churi, Convor, Gillum move in to draw fire off** **_Intrepid._ **

CP-9041:  _ He's still in there  _

**FC-6345: Mooka, Kyren, Perlek, Reeho running spiral down Relentless port side**

**FC-6345** **_: Move!_ **

CP-9041:  _ I can still save hi-- _

 

**_***Avril 2 Com Disengaged***_ **

 

Shit.  _ Shit.  _ If Mids was no responsive and hadn't ejected before the crash he was unconscious or worse. “Get me a direct line on Avril 2.”

 

“Sir?”

 

Yes it's fucking unprecedented, but, “ _ Do it. _ ”

 

**_***Avril 2 Com Active***_ **

 

CP-9041: -- _ ing,  _ I'm coming I _ promise  _ just hang in there _ please _

**FC-6345: Talk to me Gunner**

**FC-6345: What's going on down there?**

CP-9041: H-He’s flipped

CP-9041: Bird's belly up

CP-9041: Can't get-- _ nngk _

CP-9041:  _ Come on _ \--

 

Glassteel breaking and ragged, unsteady breathing in his ear overlay the other Flights’ chatter.

 

**FC-6345:** **_Reeho, double back on Kyren’s tail!_ **

**FC-6345: Keep em scrambled boys!**

CP-9041: Mids

CP-9041:  _ Mids _

CP-9041: C’mon bro  _ wake up _

CP-9041:  _ Mids  _

CP-9041: _ Midwing! _

**FC-6345: Is he breathing?**

CP-9041: I-I don't--

CP-9041:  _ Fuck  _ there's so much blood--

**FC-6345:** **_Is he fucking breathing?_ **

**FC-6345: If he's bleeding he's alive**

**FC-6345: Shithead**

**FC-6345:** **_Get those fucking droids off my fucking turrets you fucks_ **

**FC-6345: Convor, bombing run in 5!**

CP-9041:  _ He's breathing!  _

CP-9041: He's--

CP-9041:  _ Mids? _

CP-9041: Mids

CP-9041:  _ Midwing _ babe come on

CP-9041:  _ Babe I can't fucking fly without my midwing come on _

**FC-6345:** **_Convor, fire all!_ **

CP-9041:  _ Babe _ \--

CP-1409:  _ h-hhhhckh _

**FC-6345: Well I'll be damned**

CP-9041:  _ H-Hey  _ babe

CP-9041: Hey...

CP-1409:  _ Ghh _

CP-1409: Ghhns?

CP-9041: Dude shut up okay don't try to talk

CP-9041: Let's get you out of here okay babe?

**FC-6345: Mooka, Reeho cut down to 0.7 and re-engage.**

**FC-6345: Kyren, you're up**

**FC-6345: Make it good**

CP-1409: hn

CP-1409: h-heh 

CP-1409: Ghhns…

CP-1409: Got

CP-1409: Got th’world in m'hands Guns

CP-9041: You’re holding  _ my  _ hands 

CP-9041: Dumbass

CP-1409: Cos you’re m’world

CP-9041:  _ Babe _

**FC-6345: Reeho 3 what the** **_fuck_ ** **are you** **_doing?_ **

CP-9041: Babe? 

CP-9041: Babe stay with me

**FC-6345: Oh.**

**FC-6345: That.**

 

Reeho’s warcry rings out over the coms, mimicking the raucous call of their brightly colored mascot.

 

**FC-6345: Nicely done.**

CP-9041:  _ Babe?! _

**FC-6345:** **_Talk to me Gunner_ **

CP-9041: H-He's out again

CP-9041: Blood loss I think I don't--

CP-9041:  _ Fuck _

CP-9041: His  _ legs-- _

CP-9041: I don't--

**FC-6345: You know how to make a fucking tourniquet**

**FC-6345: Dicknuts**

 

He slaps Aytee in the shoulder. “Get me a line to the ground, and coordinates.  _ Now!” _

Aytee doesn't hesitate, hands flying over the datascreen. “Got it, sir. Closest squad is half a klik out.”

“It'll have to do.”

 

**FC-6345: This is Flight Commander Done of the** **_Relentless_ ** **to** **_Colo_ **

**CT-1711: The** **_fuck?_ **

**CT-1711: Uh**

**CT-1711: Colo Sergeant Razor receiving**

CT-0022: What the shit?

**FC-6345: I’ve got two downed pilots half a klik east-northeast of your position**

**FC-6345: Need a pickup and a medic**

CT-0333: Of fucking course they do

**FC-6345: Can you get them?**

CT-0333: Sure, only half a platoon of clankers in the way.

CT-0333: We'll be  _ fine. _

**CT-1711: We'll get 'em, sir.**

 

“ _ Sir!  _ Incoming on Intrepid, two, no,  _ six  _ Vulture wings--!”

“ _ Then move to take them down, dammit!”  _ he snarls.

 

Aytee throws his headset back on, working the data screen around whatever is left of Avril, and doesn't look away from his work as he asks,

 

“Hey, d'you happen to know what the pot got up to on those idiots figuring it out? Cos I had 12-1 odds on 'Near Death Experience Realization.’”

“ _ Not the time, Aytee!” _

 

He sends Perlek and Kyren to reinforce the  _ Intrepid _ , and pauses to mutter, off coms, “You'll be up at least 45k if they make it out alive.”

 

“ _ Damn,  _ they'd better.”


End file.
